Blog Archives

I had a pretty good arrangement established with my physician’s office, he employs a specially trained pain management specialist and over the past couple of years she’s worked with me to tweak my intake of pain drugs to be the minimum possible while effectively damping the neuropathic pain caused by MS to a low enough level that I can function. Sure, I’m nowhere near as productive as a healthy person, and I’m never out of pain entirely, but with the small amount of drugs I ingest daily the pain level isn’t like a buzzing fly in my ear that keeps my mind distracted from whatever business at hand I’m trying to accomplish.

As I discussed in my last post, I now have to go to a dedicated pain management facility…and tomorrow’s the day. The knuckleheads at my doc’s office inadvertently bought me a few extra weeks’ reprieve by not updating their records and I went on a wild goose chase last time since the office I’d picked was no longer there and had moved some distance away. There are…or were…only two such facilities reasonably close to me so the second one’s the only choice left.

Tomorrow I’ll be making my first trip to see them, and I confess I’m not at all sanguine about the outcome. Recently this one, the ‘Center for Spine, Joint, and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation’ sent me a sheaf of forms they require new patients to fill out. It was about fifteen pages, most of which are loaded with spaces for information. Like even my neurologist’s office’ forms, they have to be manually filled out, a minor annoyance for most people, but remember that with my dominant left hand’s function severely limited by MS, I simply can’t do hand writing. I had to enlist my mom to assist, but I’m pretty appalled that in this day and age these forms can’t be digitized so they could be completed with a keyboard for folks like me. The cheapest junk PC with a Word or .pdf editor couldd handle the job…but so far these ‘experts’ haven’t got the memo.

Worse, the language is mighty authoritarian in nature, filled with all sorts of privacy invasions and penalties for not following each edict to the letter. Like the Social (IN) Security disability process I endured, again I’m being treated like a criminal. There’s even a provision for them to count my pain pills if they get the urge, to make sure I’m not gobbling them like candy. Un-freakin-believable.

With an adverse tone and demeanor already established, I have a feeling they’re going to cut my pain meds off, since the Holy Drug Warriors have adopted a punishment ethic against chronic pain patients. I talked about some of the ugly stories in the article I wrote last year for the American Daily Herald, now I get to see the process firsthand.

The irony is I wouldn’t need the pain meds I take at anywhere near the level they’re now at if I were able to get out in the world and busy myself with the many things I want to do.

Beside the obvious fact that I’m not dumb or reckless enough to drive under the influence of pain drugs, while I may never be out of pain, I’ve seen in the infrequent times when I’m occupied doing something real, the activity submerges that pain to a far less significant level and it can be ignored. Sounds subjective, but there’s all the difference between being stuck in one place where the pain can demand my attention and being immersed in a dynamic activity that banishes it into near-insignificance.

So you can see that the need for recovering my mobility is greater than ever. I’ll keep the writing and broadcasting up even if I get stuck with an even higher pain level and will not knuckle under to it, but I know I could do so much more with my liberty of movement restored.

PLEASE help me do this, we’ve raised just under half of the needed amount but there’s still a ways to go and I implore the world out there for a hand in achieving this, it’s more urgent than ever!

You haven’t seen even a fraction yet of what I’ll be able to do in promoting liberty, the nonagression principle and sound currency once I get back to the Land of the Living!

I’ll keep everyone updated as to how all this turns out…wish me luck, and count on a full report soon.

WKOAlive
A great station, broadcasting out of Tampa to keep you informed!

incompetech.com
The best and most user friendly site for royalty free music and sounds for use in media projects. All Kevin asks is for attribution in new works using his material. Licensed under Creative Commons and thoroughly awesome!

Adam Vs. The Man
Do you believe in peaceful, individual, voluntary action in your life? You just might be an anarcho capitalist! So’s Adam, and he promotes it with style.

Tatiana Moroz Official Site
The official site of my new friend and ally in the liberty community. Tatiana’s a wonderfully talented artist and a force to be reckoned with in the liberty movement…a genuine MUST SEE!

Lew Rockwell dot com
A multifaceted site covering everything from politics and economics to food, fun and diversions. It’s my main daily trusted source for news.

American Daily Herald
A fine online journal and the home of my new venture in writing regular columns! I like their motto: veritas, libertas, pax et prosperitas

Rise Of Flight official site
More than just the premiere WW I air combat simulation, I consider Rise of Flight the most realistic flight sim ever. Check it out, the basic sim is free! You can fly two planes to begin with, or act as gunner in any 2-seat scout or large bomber online.